Stormtrooper Armor

It has been suggested that
stormtrooper armor is a profound advantage for the everpresent soldiers of the
Empire, despite the apparent ease of their dispatch. Claims for the armor
include the idea that it renders the wearer virtually
impervious to projectile weapons, and according to StarDestroyer.Net's Mike Wong:

"it affords the wearer complete
protection from a wide variety of threats, such as extreme temperature
variations, the vacuum of space (albeit only briefly), radiogenic fallout, nerve
gases, and biological agents." (italics mine)

Further, it's claimed that the helmets contain
sensors and advanced communications, augmenting the trooper's perceptions and
the capabilities of the squad as a whole. Let us consider these various claims.

I.
Helmets and Information

The basic idea here
is that the helmet contains a scanning suite (a la Geordi's visor, which carried
broad spectrum EM information to his brain, in ST:TNG). This
would allow the wearer a complete grasp of his surroundings well beyond what can be
seen in the visual spectrum, presumably communicated by some advanced display
screen, direct retinal projection, or what-have-you. One might also
expect it to offer the Empire extremely good battle management techniques by
allowing realtime communication of visual and audio tactical and intelligence
data up and down the chain of command, or to comrades.

Unfortunately,
there are far too many contrary pieces of evidence, even just from a quick
perusal of ANH.

A.
Communications

Orders and intel appear to be verbally-reported affairs:

- The trooper who found a piece of R2 or 3PO on
Tatooine held up the item into the field of view of his
commander. "Look sir, droids!"
- The lead trooper headed for Docking Bay 94 verbally instructed his men to
load their weapons, and upon arrival verbal orders to stop the ship and to
fire on Han were given. Han's attention seemed to be drawn by the
comments, suggesting that these were indeed orders spoken right out loud and
not via radio . . . though it is also possible he saw the movement of the white-armored
troopers out of his peripheral vision.
- "TK-421, why aren't you at your post?" That not only shows
verbal communication from above, but also demonstrates that there is no
central monitoring of trooper activity (as if via transmission of helmet
cameras, a la "Aliens" or "Predator II").
- "Give me regular reports, please," says one trooper to the two
left behind in the area of the tractor beam power tap controls.
- We hear verbally-communicated reports of where the Death Star security
forces think the escaping Rebels may be, and that they believe them to have
split up.
- "Close the blast doors!" and "Open the blast
doors!" Again, no monitoring of what any trooper might be seeing,
such as a video feed of the Rebels who hopped through the closing doors.

In short, there doesn't seem to be any particularly
impressive battle management technique afforded by the helmets or armor. Like
a police officer with a walkie-talkie, all we get are line-of-sight visual
communications, and audio via direct conversation or radio transmissions. We get a good
description of how the latter operates in the ANH novelization's first chapter,
regarding the trooper who found Leia:

"Within the armor his head turned
slightly, directing his voice to the tiny condenser microphone. "Here she
is," he called to those behind him. "Set for stun
forcó"
He never finished the sentence, just as he would never receive the hoped-for
commendation. Once his attention turned from the girl to his communicator her
shivering vanished with startling speed. The energy pistol she had held out of
sight behind her came up and around as she burst from her hiding place."

B.
Sensory Effects

There's no evidence of scanning technology
in the helmet:

- As the stormtroopers search Leia's ship,
they don't notice her until she's standing in an exposed position right in
front of them, and the leader looks right at her. And, as seen in the
quote above, he doesn't detect her pistol until she brings it out from behind
her.
- As Vader boards Leia's cruiser, a
stormtrooper is seen appearing to check for signs of life on a fallen comrade,
holding his head and seeming to check for a pulse.
- While searching for the droids, stormtroopers manually checked whether doors
were locked, and did not detect the droids standing right behind such a door.
- Stormtroopers walked around the captured
Falcon looking for anyone aboard, unable to detect Han and company beneath a
floor panel, or any trace of them having been within the cockpit or corridors
minutes beforehand. A separate scanning crew with a large pallet
of bulky
equipment was called in to scan the vessel.
- Of course, there's Luke's comment about being unable to see a thing in the
helmet, though he was able to walk around and navigate. To be fair, it
probably wasn't designed for non-clones, but it would seem to indicate a lack of any
advanced sensor display techniques. He simply found it hard to
see.
- Kenobi distracts the two troopers at the tractor beam power tap with a mind
trick of a sound, but even after this is complete they don't notice him running past:

Note
the angles, either of the right-hand trooper's head or of the direction he
would be looking in order to face the left trooper. It's clear that
Kenobi's movement should've been quite visible out of his peripheral vision,
and even moreso since Kenobi's exit route is as well-lit as the portal behind
the troopers . . . his dark cloak would've served only as a source of
contrast. Nonetheless, neither Kenobi, nor his movement, nor his
lifesigns were picked up by the troopers.
- Lest we forget one of the more famous stormtrooper moments:

(Bonk)

C.
Counterevidence

On the other hand,
we can attempt to locate some more hopeful data:

1.
Vader's helmet in Episode III seems to have some sort of Terminator-esque
augmented reality system. Two small screens over the interior of the
eyepieces cover his eyes, apparently replacing what he sees with a red-hued
grayscale representation. The novelization describes the display as
"optical sensors [that] integrate light and shadow into a hideous
simulacrum of the world".

The
helmet is apparently capable of producing 3-D data given its dual displays, and
there appears to be text overlay suggesting that further information about the
environment is provided (though, to be fair, this could merely be an indicator
of the life-support conditions within the suit). We might presume that the
unit has some sort of night-vision augmentation.

Vader's
control of the device was apparently limited. In RoTS we see the helmet
representation turn on and for a moment it is transparent, but Vader seemingly
can't make this happen at will given his apparent inability to see Luke
"with my own eyes" in RoTJ. Also, there are three connection
points on the inside of the screens that produce a halo around them, vaguely
similar to what happens when you press your finger against an LCD monitor.
Unless these are merely a 'start-up artifact' that will disappear shortly after
the helmet is engaged, then apparently Vader always has floating glows just
above and below the center of his field of vision.

In
any case, there is no evidence for such a display system being in use on
stormtrooper helmets. Indeed, the colorful decorations on clonetrooper
armor from the end of the Clone Wars would seem to argue against any grayscale
displays in that era, at least. Further, it seems unlikely that the
red and blue Imperial Navy rank insignia would feature such coloration if in
fact the stormtroopers couldn't see it, though I suppose there could be
plausible reasons why they wouldn't need to. And finally, the idea
that stormtroopers would be unable to discern different bolt colorings would
seem to be not just odd, but actually dangerous.

2.
During the firefight in
cellblock AA-23, stormtrooper accuracy did not seem terribly affected by the
intervening smoke as it appeared. Of course, since they were consistently missing,
this proves nothing either way.

3.
The only known advantage of the helmets comes in the transparent material used
in the eye-coverings. Besides the expectation that these would be
hard to break and would thus make for good 'safety glasses' to protect the eyes,
we learn in Chapter 18 of the Episode III novelization that the material as seen
in clonetrooper helmets is polarized to help minimize glare, much like
many modern sunglasses (1,2).
Presumably this carried over into later stormtrooper helmets.

D.
Summary

In short,
there is no evidence for augmented sensory capability on the part of
stormtroopers that would be more effective than wearing polarized sunglasses, and both visual evidence and direct statements suggest that, if
anything, stormtroopers will have lessened perceptual capabilities . . .
especially when it comes to low-hanging objects. Even if they had a
"hideous simulacrum" system similar to the one in Vader's helmet, then
they are limited to a simple grayscale display that deletes color information
and evidently does not tie in to any other system . . . i.e. no gun
feedback to help with aim, no command and control based on seeing what the
trooper sees, et cetera.

In
a word: useless.

II.
Armor Protection - Kinetic

In Return of the Jedi, we get to see prime examples of the
utility of stormtrooper armor. We already knew it didn't allow the
wearer to withstand the concussion and shrapnel of an exploding Death Star wall
panel, but this film demonstrates many more weaknesses. Blunt impacts, such as
those produced by hefty rocks, clubs, and collisions, all serve to neutralize
stormtroopers, with the armor seeming to provide no protection.

Disturbingly, however, it seems that
the metal armor can also be pierced by
primitive arrows, in staggering contrast to the claim of complete protection
against projectile weapons.

Ewok bow & arrow

Arrow
sticking out of a trooper's back

Some claim that the arrow seen above must have hit
higher than it appears, through the softer black bodysuit material below the helmet but above the 'backpack'. Others have gone so far as
to try to draw in the arrow above the black semi-circle!

Others claim that the backpack itself, though made of rigid material,
is not genuine stormtrooper armor. Or, in the
alternate version, that the above fellow is merely a scout trooper, and
therefore could not be expected to have on real trooper armor.

Both of those similar ideas are based on the assumption that
stormtrooper armor would be superior. As you can see below, there is no reason
for such an assumption:

Stormtroopers kicked from a log by EwoksStormtroopers hitting the ground a few
feet below

Observe
the cracked
shoulder armor

Note that the Ewoks did not strike the shoulder armor. Note that
neither troop fell directly onto that shoulder. What cracked it?
Rolling? The Ewok sticks?

Whatever it was, it should be apparent that stormtrooper armor provides
very little protection against kinetic impact.

III.
Armor Protection - Other

"Other"
covers everything else. There are, of course, numerous examples of blaster
shots penetrating the armor. Here, we'll examine the notion of "complete
protection" against temperature, vacuum, and threats from nuclear,
biological, or chemical (N/B/C) agents. Despite the wide array
of claimed protections, the presentation of the counterevidence requires few
words:

The
above shots are of Luke wearing stormtrooper armor, and then preparing to remove
his helmet. In both, you can clearly see his neck and jaw.
Direct exposure of the skin and exposure to unfiltered air hardly constitutes
"complete protection" against temperature
or N/B/C threats, and there's certainly nothing to stop a vacuum's effects.

Some
might suggest that Luke either didn't know how to use the stormtrooper suit
(neglecting to activate some autoseal) or didn't put all of the suit on (leaving
off, in this case, some sort of sealing headgear) However, if either
of those were the case, then why is it that professional stormtroopers show the
same exposed skin as faux stormtroopers?

One
clear example of this is from The
Empire Strikes Back, as originally reported by several StarWars.com forum
posters. In TESB, two stormtroopers return Han from his torture
session. When dropping his agonized body on the floor, however, there
is what one might call a "wardrobe malfunction".

Han's arms catch the bottom rear of the helmets as he falls. The left
trooper turns his head and then body to follow through with the motion, almost losing his
balance in the process. However, the trooper on the right is not quite so lucky with his
helmet, which twists out of place and almost comes off. Hence the amusing
"curious puppy" look he wears in that last image.

As
the right-hand side trooper turns away, his neck, jaw, ear, and quite a bit of
his cheek become visible. The shots below show closer, contrast-enhanced
views of
the turn-away sequence from the Cinemax HD version, with the skin most readily visible on the
early shots before the trooper walks into
shadow and we lose our armor-reflected light:

Another
incident occurs in RoTJ. A stormtrooper, part of what the Emperor
describes as a "legion of my best troops", gets hit by an Ewok bola
weapon. As he falls backward we get an excellent view up the helmet:

Clearly,
then, even the best stormtroopers go into battle without N/B/C
protection. Further, we get confirmation that scout troopers are
similarly-protected. The scout below is yelling to his comrade . . . note
the scout's chin, more easily visible since, unlike stormtrooper helmets,
there's less chin coverage:

As
a result of all of this, it is clear that, whether you're Luke Skywalker or
TK-421, you're exposed to the open air.

Conclusion

Despite being described as metal, stormtrooper armor is easily
pierced by direct hits from even primitive projectiles, and can be cracked with similar ease,
much like the thin die-cast metal used in small toy cars. This is not to say
that the armor would be completely useless. For example, foes with a knife
would have to have extraordinarily careful aim, and glancing impacts . . . from
shrapnel, projectiles, and perhaps even blaster bolts . . . might end up
deflected as opposed to producing flesh wounds. Nonetheless, the
armor provides little to no protection against blaster shots and seems
to do little to alleviate blunt-force or projectile impacts. The trooper
could be readily gassed, immolated, irradiated, or suffocated via vacuum. The various segments serve
to limit range of motion, and, barring some sort of advanced thermal properties
in the black bodysuit, the suits are almost certainly hot and uncomfortable even
at a comfortable room temperature.

The helmet does little to prevent the
trooper within from being knocked out in case of impact, and, besides a simple
radio and the use of polarized lenses, the helmet only serves to limit the trooper's
range of vision.

In short, there is little purpose to
stormtrooper armor, save perhaps for the utility belt. Though in principle body armor is a very sound
concept, the Imperial practice leaves much to be desired.